"Yvonne, you should get some rest. You have that business trip tomorrow, right? Go to bed early; I'll handle this myself," Janet said, nudging me.

"What's this medicine?" I stared at the pills for a while before finally asking.

"It's for preconception. York brought it back from abroad. He said the many people use this for preconception," Janet explained, taking out a bottle and carefully packing the pills inside.

I glanced at the bottle, and indeed, the words on the packaging were related to preconception.

But this medicine was exactly the same as the one I saw at Queena's place this morning.

Queena had just gotten married last month. The newlyweds wanted to enjoy some time alone together before having children, so they planned to wait a couple of years before starting a family.

The medicine was something Queena had brought back from abroad, claiming it was a contraceptive.

4.

I secretly pocketed some pills while Janet wasn't looking.

Early the next morning, I headed over to Queena's place.

In the meantime, Jimmy Leacock called, asking where I was since we had agreed to go on a business trip together today.

I suddenly remembered that Jimmy had asked me to accompany him to meet a client in the city yesterday.

After saying goodbye to Queena, I took a cab straight to the office, where Jimmy was waiting and immediately began scolding me.

"Yvonne, you're getting bolder! You're late even for a business trip with the boss."

I rolled my eyes at him.

"If you keep nagging, we'll really be late."

Jimmy and I had known each other since we were young. After graduating high school, he went abroad and only recently returned to take over his family business.

When I graduated from college, he came to our school for recruitment and lured me in under the pretense of an internship, but I needed to do all kinds of labor.

We arrived at the client's location, and with Jimmy there, the negotiations went smoothly.

Afterward, I took out the pills from my bag and showed them to him.

"Jimmy, you know a lot of people. Can you help me find out what's in these pills?"

Although Queena insisted they were contraceptives and showed me the purchase receipt, I couldn't bring myself to believe it.

This was something York bought, and Janet had been using it for years.

"What is this, a magical elixir? Yvonne, when did you develop an interest in immortality?" Jimmy teased.

"Stop joking! This is what York bought for my sister, supposedly for preconception, but it doesn't look like it."

Jimmy knew Janet well and was familiar with our family's matters, so I wasn't trying to hide anything from him.

Fortunately, Jimmy didn't ask further and carefully put the pills away.

I turned my head toward the window, and suddenly, a familiar figure caught my eye.

Was that York?

He was dressed casually, with a beautiful woman with curly hair in his arms. They were chatting and laughing as they passed by our car, looking very intimate.

I was startled, thinking I must be mistaken. I rubbed my eyes and looked again, but they had already entered a nearby restaurant.

Without thinking too much, I opened the car door and chased after them.

4

But it was too late.

Pushing open the restaurant door, York was nowhere to be seen.

"This restaurant is just the entrance; the mall is huge," Jimmy caught up and reminded me.

"Did you see them?" I asked.

"My eyesight is better than yours."

I refused to give up and dragged Jimmy around the mall, but we still didn't find any sign of York.

"Scumbag!"

I punched the glass door of the mall and cursed.

Passersby looked at us with curiosity.

Jimmy, looking somewhat innocent, pulled me away.

Back home, I took out the luggage I had packed the night before, piece by piece.

I tentatively chatted with Janet about examples of cheating and mistresses...

Janet listened attentively, and at the end, she asked with concern, "Yvonne, is Jimmy giving you a hard time? If he dares to bully you, tell me, and I'll deal with him."

See? That was my sister—her own life may be a mess, but she still worried that I was mistreated.

"Not at all! Wait, he's my boss now, so there's no such thing as bullying."

Jimmy was only a few years older than me, and our families had always liked to tease us. Since I saw his mother dressing him up in a skirt, I couldn't see him as a potential romantic interest.

What should have been a heartwarming tale of childhood friends turned into something quite different in my mind.

Janet looked at me with a smile but didn't say anything.

I went to my room, opened my computer, and checked on the recent performance of the hotel, but I found an updated post from that day.

It was a photo.

The poster claimed that his sister-in-law had refused him, but his secretary was obedient and convenient for a casual fling.

The picture was of a woman in an office outfit, her wavy hair particularly striking.

The back of the woman seemed familiar, but I couldn't immediately place her.

I instinctively checked the poster's profile.

The poster had shared many posts before, showing off houses, cars, and family photos.

When I saw the little girl with pigtails, I shook my head.

People would really make up anything for attention these days.

His kid was at the age of kindergarten.

I was about to close the window when something caught my eye—the car he had posted was identical to the one York drove.

5

My palms started to sweat.

I looked back at the photos of his wife and kid.

The wife was just a vague outline, making it hard to identify her.

But the little girl, with her lovely features, bore no resemblance to York.

I scrolled through the poster's other posts, mostly mundane daily matters, with no apparent anomalies.

It must be a coincidence, I told myself.

I returned to the previous page and saw the secretary's back again.

It suddenly struck me. This was the same woman York had been holding in the street during the day!

Was this account York's?

Had he been cheating and had a child?

The thought made me immediately get up. I wanted to tell Janet. But I stopped halfway to the door.

No.

These few photos alone couldn't prove anything. If I told Janet now, she would surely confront York immediately.

By then, he could deny everything and cover up the obvious clues, making it difficult to uncover his faults.

If he could make such disgusting remarks about Janet's inability to have children while already having a child himself, his intentions were truly malevolent.

He was such a beast!

I seethed with anger, returned to the computer, saved the photos from the post, and then called a friend in the tech department to help me investigate the poster's information.

Just then, Jimmy's call came in. He said the results were back, and it was indeed birth control pills.

I hung up, staring at the address sent by my friend from the tech department, my mind in turmoil. It was a villa district in the suburbs.

On Sunday, I took Janet to the hospital, lying that a friend of mine knew an international expert who specialized in infertility, but we needed some information from her.

I also told her not to mention it to York, and she agreed.

Even though I had seen many of her past medical reports, and Janet always believed her infertility was her own fault, I couldn't buy it.

Those reports were always taken by York after Janet's hospital visits and brought back with the doctor's comments.

If York could tamper with her fertility medication, who was to say he wouldn't do the same with the reports?

The hospital results weren't out yet, but York had returned.

6

He still carried that air of disdain, his hair impeccably groomed. Seeing me at home, he gave a habitual snort and then went into the bedroom to argue with Janet.

The usual ending followed—he stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

This time, I was prepared. The moment he left, I put on a hat and mask and followed him.

Just outside the complex, I saw him drive off in his car.

I pulled out my phone to hail a ride, but fearing he'd get away before the car arrived, I hurriedly grabbed a bike parked at the entrance and set off after him.

But how could two wheels catch up with four? Soon enough, his car was out of sight.

Just as I was feeling desperate, a small car stopped in front of me.

The window rolled down to reveal Jimmy's face.

"Get in."

Without asking why he was there, I abandoned the bike and got into his car.

But even with this brief delay, York's car was lost in the traffic.

I then remembered the address from the tech department and directed Jimmy to head there.

Sure enough, we spotted York's car at the entrance of a high-end villa district.

Visitors had to register and get confirmation from a resident to enter.

We were stopped at the gate.

"I'll handle this," Jimmy said, heading to the security office.

After a while, a chubby security chief escorted him out with a smile, opened the gate for us, and even provided York's house number.

Parking the car, we hid in the greenery next to York's house, using an apple tree for cover.

Our eyes fixed on the tightly shut villa door.

"How did you convince the security chief?" I asked Jimmy, trying to ease my nerves.

"Take a guess." He handed me a bottle of water.

I waved it off, indicating I didn't want any.

He opened it and drank himself.

Looking at his handsome face, I couldn't help but joke. "Did you use your looks to seduce the security chief?"

Jimmy spat water all over me.

"Yvonne, what on earth is going on in that head of yours?"

"So, what was the reason?" I asked, now feeling sorry for Jimmy, picturing the rotund security chief.

Did he make too big a sacrifice?

"I have a friend living in this community. I called him, and he called the security office to let us in," Jimmy replied, annoyed.